Conventionally, a genre of games called a “music game”, in which music is introduced as a game component, is widely known. In the games, a plurality of tracks, which are arranged vertically or horizontally, are displayed on a TV screen. In addition, an object moves on the tracks according to a music play. A player operates a predetermined operation switch in accordance with an operation timing indicated on the screen, whereby the player plays the game while an effect of causing the player to feel as if actually playing the music is exerted.
As one of the above-described music games, known is a music game which allows a plurality of players to participate in playing cooperatively one musical composition (e.g., User's Manual of “Daigasso Band Brothers” released on Dec. 2, 2004 from Nintendo Co., Ltd.). In this cooperative music playing game, the music is played by using a plurality of hand-held game apparatuses each having a wireless communication function incorporated therein. FIG. 32 is a diagram showing a system configuration when the cooperative music playing game is played. In the cooperative music playing game, one of the plurality of hand-held game apparatuses is regarded as a master apparatus 401a. The remaining hand-held game apparatuses are regarded as slave apparatuses 401b, and communication lines are established such that each of the slave apparatuses 401b can perform wireless communication with the master apparatus 401a. 
Further, in the cooperative music playing game, one musical composition is divided into respective units called “parts” (for example, parts of the guitar, the piano, the violin, and the like) depending on the musical instruments used for playing the musical composition. One player has one of the hand-held game apparatuses. The above-described “parts” are assigned to respective players. An operation screen displayed on each of hand-held game apparatuses varies in accordance with the part to be performed, and thus each of the players performs operation for playing the part (e.g., pressing buttons or the like in accordance with an operation timing displayed on the screen of each of the players). That is, each of the players imaginarily plays a different musical instrument. In the case of being exemplified by the above-described example, one player plays the guitar, one player plays the piano, and the other one player plays the violin, imaginarily.
Operation data of each of the players is gathered to the master apparatus, and the gathered operation data is transmitted to each of the slave apparatuses. Accordingly, the operation data performed by each of the players is distributed to each of the hand-held game apparatuses. In each of the hand-held game apparatuses (both of the master apparatus and the slave apparatuses), a sound of each of the parts is simultaneously outputted in accordance with the distributed operation data, whereby sounds (of the guitar, the piano, and the violin in the case of the above-described example) caused by the operation of the each of the player can be outputted. In this manner, the cooperative music playing game provides the plurality of players with fun of experiencing in playing one musical composition cooperatively.
However, the above-described cooperative music playing game has the following problems. FIG. 33 is a diagram schematically showing a processing flow during the cooperative music playing performed with the conventional cooperative music playing game. As shown in FIG. 33, the respective players play respective operations (time T1). Next, in each of the slave apparatuses 401b, processing to transmit the operation data to the master apparatus 401a is performed, and in the master apparatus 401a, processing to receive the operation data (time T2) is performed. Accordingly, the operation data of each of the players are gathered to the master apparatus 401a. 
Next, processing is performed so as to transmit the gathered operation data from the master apparatus 401a to each of the slave apparatuses 401b. In accordance with this, in each of the slave apparatuses 401b, processing is performed so as to receive the operation data of each of the players transmitted from the master apparatus 401a (time T3). Processing is then performed so as to output, from each of the hand-held game apparatuses, a sound having reflected therein the operation data of each of the players (time T4).
As shown in the above-described processing flow, in order to output the sound from each of the slave apparatuses 401b after the operation is performed therewith, each of the slave apparatus 401b needs to receive the operation data of the other players via the master apparatus 401a. In other words, even if each of the players performs the operation, the sounds having reflected therein the operations of all the players cannot be outputted immediately thereafter. In the case of FIG. 33, three processing steps corresponding to times T2, T3 and T4 are necessary after the operation performed by each of the players until the output of the sounds. Further, the game process is generally processed in units of frames, e.g., at an interval of 1/60 of a second, which is an interval of drawing a game screen. However, due to a communication speed of the wireless communication, it is difficult to perform transmission from the slave apparatus to the master apparatus (processing during time T2) and transmission from the master apparatus to the slave apparatus (processing during time T3) within one frame. Generally, processing time of a two-frame length, that is, one frame for the processing during time T2 and one frame for the processing during time T3, is required. As a result, in the conventional cooperative music playing games, there has been a time lag of one-frame length between the operation performed by each of the players and an actual output of the sounds caused by the operation performed by each of the players. Therefore, a problem has been posed in that, depending the content (such as tempo) of a musical composition played cooperatively, the player may feel a sense of discomfort resulting from the time lag.
In the case of the above-described hand-held game apparatus, a main body (housing) thereof needs to be downsized for the sake of being carried by the player. In order to downsize the main body, a speaker mounted therein needs to be downsized inevitably. However, a small speaker generally has weak bass output, and thus a problem is posed in that an outputted sound cannot have a sound quality which satisfies the player.
Further, a processing unit such as a CPU used for the hand-held game apparatus is generally slow in processing speed as compared to that of a stationary game apparatus. On the other hand, with respect to sound data, the higher the sound quality is, the greater an amount of the data becomes. However, it may be an excessive processing load for the CPU of the hand-held game apparatus, which is relatively slow in the processing speed, to process the sound data of a large data amount (high quality sound data). Therefore, in order to keep providing the player with a preferable operational feeling, there has been adopted “small-amount” sound data, in which the sound quality is degraded to some degree, for processing. As a result, in addition to the problem of the above-described size of the speaker, a problem has been posed in that quality of the sound outputted from the hand-held game apparatus is low, since the quality of the sound data processed by the hand-held game apparatus is originally low.
Therefore, certain example embodiments provide a game system which eliminates time lag between an operation of each of the players and outputting of the sound, when a plurality of players plays a game of outputting a sound by using respective hand-held game apparatuses.
Further, certain example embodiments provide a game system which is capable of causing a plurality of players to enjoy high quality sound output by using respective hand-held game apparatuses.
Certain example embodiments may have the following features described herein. The reference numerals, additional explanations and the like in the parentheses indicate the correspondence with the embodiment described below in order to aid in understanding of the described embodiments and are not intended to be limiting in any way.
A first aspect is a game system executing a game by performing communication between a stationary game apparatus (3) and a plurality of hand-held game apparatuses (40), each including a display section (41, 42) for displaying an image and an operation section (44, 45). Each of the plurality of hand-held game apparatuses comprises display control means (51) and operation data transmission means (63). The display control means causes a plurality of directional signs to be displayed on the display section so as to indicate to a player an operation to be performed by using the operation section. The operation data transmission means transmits, to the stationary game apparatus, operation data indicative of a content of the operation performed by using the operation section. The stationary game apparatus comprises sound data storage means for the stationary apparatus (12), operation data reception means (18), sound reading means (10), and sound output means (10, 15, 16). The sound data storage means for the stationary apparatus stores therein a plurality of pieces of sound data. The operation data reception means receives the operation data transmitted from each of the plurality of hand-held game apparatuses. The sound reading means obtains, from the sound data storage means, sound data corresponding to the operation data transmitted from each of the plurality of the hand-held game apparatuses. The sound output means outputs a sound based on the obtained sound data.
According to the first aspect, it is possible to reduce a time lag between the operation of the player and the output of the sound corresponding to the operation. Further, it is possible to cause the player to enjoy a game while a high quality sound is outputted.
In a second aspect based on the first aspect, a game executed by the game system is a music game in which a musical composition which is composed of a plurality of parts is played cooperatively by using each of the hand-held game apparatuses while each of the plurality of parts are taken charge of by each of the hand-held game apparatuses. The plurality of directional signs indicates a content of a play operation of the musical composition with respect to each of the plurality of parts. Each of the hand-held game apparatuses further comprises directional sign storage means (54) for storing, in a chronological order, therein, data indicative of the plurality of directional signs. The display control means reads, from the directional sign storage means, the plurality of directional signs for causing each of the hand-held game apparatuses to play the part taken charge of thereby, and displays the plurality of directional signs on the display section. The sound data storage means for the stationary apparatus stores therein sound data corresponding to each of the plurality of parts. The sound data reading means reads, in accordance with the operation data, sound data corresponding to a part taken charge of by a hand-held game apparatus, which is a transmission source of the operation data.
According to the second aspect, by using a high quality sound, it is possible to cause the player to enjoy the cooperative play without feeling discomfort such as a time lag in the sound. Accordingly, the plurality of players can strongly feel togetherness through the cooperative music playing, and accordingly amusingness of the music game can be improved.
In a third aspect based on the second aspect, each of the hand-held game apparatuses further comprises: part selection means (51) for causing a player to select a part to be taken charge of by the player; and part information transmission means (63) for transmitting part selection information indicative of the part selected by the player to the stationary game apparatus. The stationary game apparatus further comprises: part information reception means (10, 18) for receiving the part selection information; and all part information transmission means (10, 18) for transmitting all pieces of the received part selection information to each of the hand-held game apparatuses.
According to the third aspect, the respective parts composing the musical composition is assigned to the plurality of players, whereby it is possible to cause the players to enjoy playing the musical composition.
In a fourth aspect based on the third aspect, the stationary game apparatus further comprises automatic playing means (10) for reproducing a part of the musical composition, among the plurality of parts constituting the musical composition, which is not selected by the part selection means.
According to the fourth aspect, even when a small number of players enter the cooperative music playing game, it is possible to cause the player to enjoy as if the musical composition is played by a larger number of players.
In a fifth aspect based on a first aspect, the sound output means is capable of outputting the sound data obtained by the sound reading means by changing the musical scale of the sound data to a predetermined musical scale.
According to the fifth aspect, it is possible to reduce an amount of data to be stored in the sound data storage means for the stationary apparatus.
In a sixth aspect based on the first aspect, the operation section includes a depressible key. The operation data includes data indicative of an operation of the depressible key.
According to the sixth aspect, it is possible to cause the player to enjoy the music game by using a simple operation of merely pressing buttons.
In a seventh aspect based on the first aspect, the operation section includes a touch panel. The operation data includes data indicative of a touch coordinate point on the touch panel.
According to the seventh aspect, it is possible to widen a type of an operation method by introducing the touch panel operation.
In an eighth aspect based on the second aspect, each of the hand-held game apparatuses further comprises sound data storage means (54), inter-hand-held-apparatus communication means (63), inter-hand-held-apparatus communication game means (51), and game mode selection means (51). The sound data storage means for the hand-held apparatus stores therein sound data whose quality is lower than the sound data stored in the sound data storage means for the stationary apparatus. The inter-hand-held-apparatus communication means performs communication among the hand-held game apparatuses. The inter-hand-held-apparatus communication game means performs the music game while communication among the hand-held game apparatuses is performed by using the sound data stored in the sound data storage means for the hand-held apparatus and the inter-hand-held-apparatus communication means. The game mode selection means causes the player to select either of a game mode in which the music game is performed while communication is performed among the hand-held game apparatuses or a game mode in which the music game is performed through communication with the stationary game apparatus.
According to the eighth aspect, a game mode can be selected from either of that using the stationary game apparatus or that not using the stationary game apparatus, and thus it is possible to widen the manner in which the player enjoys the game. Further, in the case where the stationary game apparatus is used, the player can enjoy the music game of a high sound quality, which encourages the player to use the stationary game apparatus.
In a ninth aspect based on the second aspect, at least one of the hand-held game apparatuses further includes musical composition data storage means (54) and musical composition data transmission means (63). The musical composition data storage means includes data indicative of the plurality of directional signs. The musical composition data transmission means transmits the musical composition data to the stationary game apparatus. The stationary game apparatus further comprises musical composition data reception means (10, 18) and musical composition data distribution means (10, 18). The musical composition data reception means receives the musical composition data. The musical composition data distribution means transmits the received musical composition data to the hand-held game apparatuses. The directional sign storage means stores therein data indicative of the plurality of directional signs included in the musical composition data transmitted from the musical composition data distribution means.
According to the ninth aspect, as long as data of a musical composition is stored in one of the plurality of hand-held game apparatuses, many players can enjoy playing the musical composition.
In a tenth aspect based on the ninth aspect, each of the plurality of the hand-held game apparatuses further comprises scoring point calculation means (51) and scoring point transmission means (63). The scoring point calculation means calculates a scoring point of a play operation performed by the player by comparing the musical composition data to the operation data. The scoring point transmission means transmits scoring point data indicative of the scoring point to the stationary game apparatus. The stationary game apparatus further comprises scoring point reception means (18) and scoring point display means (10). The scoring point reception means receives the scoring point data transmitted by the scoring point transmission means. The scoring point display means displays the scoring point of the player of each of the hand-held apparatuses in accordance with the received scoring point data.
According to the tenth aspect, an accurate scoring point calculation can be performed. Since the player can recognize scoring points of other players, it is possible to enhance the amusingness of the game.
In an eleventh aspect based on the ninth aspect, the stationary game apparatus further comprises distribution program storage means (17) and distribution means (18). The distribution program storage means stores therein a play operation program for allowing a play operation to be performed by using each of the hand-held game apparatuses. The distribution means distributes the play operation program. Each of the hand-held game apparatuses further comprises storage medium receiving means (53) and play operation program storage means (54). The storage medium receiving means detachably accommodates a storage medium (47) having stored therein a game program for executing the music game and the musical composition data. The play operation program storage means stores therein the play operation program. The musical composition data transmission means of a hand-held game apparatus, which accommodates the storage medium, transmits the musical composition data stored in the storage medium to the stationary game apparatus. The distribution means transmits the play operation program to a hand-held game apparatus which does not accommodate the storage medium. The musical composition data distribution means transmits, to the hand-held game apparatus which does not accommodate the storage medium, the musical composition data transmitted from the musical composition data transmission means of the hand-held game apparatus which accommodates the storage medium. The hand-held game apparatus, which does not accommodate the storage medium, executes the music game in accordance with the play operation program transmitted from the distribution means and the musical composition data transmitted from the musical composition data distribution means.
According to the eleventh aspect, the storage medium having stored therein the game program and the musical composition data is not necessarily mounted in all the hand-held game apparatuses, and only with one storage medium, a plurality of players can enjoy the music game.
According to certain example embodiments, a time lag between the operation of the player and the actual sound output can be decreased. Accordingly, it is possible to provide the player with a comfortable sense of playing without causing the player to feel the time lag in the sound output.
These and other objects, features, aspects, and advantages of certain example embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.